The articles on the website of the leading Taiwan newspaper were gushing about a new Chinese government program to lure Taiwanese entrepreneurs to the mainland.
China "treated Taiwanese businessmen like its own people," one of the articles said, citing "multiple perks." Far from being a threat to Taiwan, the program to give economic incentives to Taiwanese to start businesses in the mainland was an "unprecedented" opportunity, it said.
While the articles were presented as straight news, they were actually paid for by the Chinese government, according to a person with direct knowledge of the arrangement and internal documents from the Taipei-based newspaper.